Interested in integrating some of our Digital Health APIs in your software? A little confused about where to start, how to do it or what steps to follow? This post is for you (and your IT team). We have prepared this quick guide for the API Consumer in Nubentos thinking of you, walking in your shoes and putting together everything we would like to find if we were you.
Let’s start.
FIND YOUR API
You can access our catalog of Digital Health innovations for free by browsing our API Store, available on our website.
You can choose between two views: the APIs view and the Packs view.
The APIs view is the traditional portfolio of APIs, where you can browse API by API our entire catalog.
The Packs view allows you to browse our marketplace from a business-oriented approach, Pack by Pack. Each Pack contains a set of APIs, grouped by a business case criteria.
In the APIs view, you can use any of the filtering tools shown in our fixed bar, above the APIs.
-
-
- A. CATEGORY. Here you can select from the large number of tags that are associated with each API or Pack.
- B. STATUS. Filters APIs in “PUBLISHED” status, “COMING SOON” status, or both.
- C. PRICING MODEL. Here you can filter the APIs that are FREE (all their consumption plans are free), those that are FREEMIUM (with some free consumption and some paid), and those that are COMMERCIAL (without free consumption).
- D. CERTIFICATION. This filter allows you to quickly identify the APIs that have the most important certifications, such as CE Mark or FDA Approval.
- E. SEARCH. In this field you can type text, and the APIs that contain it in their name or description will be filtered immediately.
-
For every API there is a details page full of useful information, to help you decide if that API is of your interest. You can access it by clicking on the “View API” button in any API card.
A. API Name, logo and pricing model.
B. Tags associated with the API, by which you can filter the portfolio.
C. Description of the API.
D. Information about its version, provider, status, available environments, certifications, etc.
E. Available documentation published by the provider along with the API.
F. Costs estimating tool.
Below the API details, you will find an “Use API” button, that will take you to the API in our developer platform, where you will be able to use it and integrate it in your software.
When you click on that button, you will be prompted to sign in in case you haven’t done so yet. Only registered users with an active SaaS membership are allowed to access the Nubentos developer platform.
TIPS AND INFORMATION
When you click on an API labeled as “SOON”, you won’t find a “Use API” button. Instead, you will see a subscription form. You can use it to be informed by email as soon as that API becomes fully available, and this way you will help us bring more providers of such solution.
The “SOON” state (“COMING SOON”) means that the API is already being published, in case it’s associated with a named API and provider, and it will be fully available as a FREE, FREEMIUM or PAID API in the near future.
In case you don’t see a specific API name and its provider, that means that several providers of this kind of solution have been identified by our commercial team, and we are in conversations with them.
COSTS ESTIMATING TOOL
One of the most helpful features available for our users and visitors, is the Costs Estimating Tool that you will find in every details page of our APIs.
This tool is aimed at helping you estimate the costs that you will face in case you choose that specific API for your projects.
Let’s check it out in detail.
A. Nubentos SaaS Plans. Columns of this table show our SaaS Plans.
B. API Consumption Plans. Rows of this table show the different Consumption Plans available for that API.
C. Availability. Cells of this table show what Consumption Plans are available under which SaaS Plans.
D. Estimated Volume. Here you can type the estimated number of monthly API calls (API uses) for this API applied to your business case and users.
E. “Calculate” button. By clicking on it, the cells of the table will show the costs for each pair of SaaS plan and Consumption plan.
The best pair, that is, the cheapest, will be highlighted.
You can check the details of the calculated costs by placing your mouse pointer on any cell. A tooltip will show the SaaS costs and the Consumption costs.
The SaaS cost is a flat cost, unitary for your user account, and therefore is applied only once, regardless of the number of APIs you are using.
The Consumption cost is a variable cost, per each API. Here you can see the result of applying the fee of the Consumption plan (the row) to the number of API calls you have entered as your estimated monthly usage volume.
SIGN UP IN NUBENTOS
While browsing our catalog is free and public, and you can visit any details page of any API or Pack, only registered users with an active SaaS membership in Nubentos can access our developer platform to use the APIs.
The Sign-up process is a two-stages process.
First, you create your user account.
Second, and most important, you subscribe your user account to one of our available SaaS plans.
It’s very important to complete the whole process, since otherwise you won’t have access to our developer platform, and won’t be able to test the APIs and integrate them in your projects.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE API
You have accessed the API in our developer platform through the “Use API” button in its details page. Here is where everything happens! Let’s check this platform out and what you can do with each API.
A. API information, such as status, version, etc.
B. Subscription area, where you can choose the consumption plan of your interest and subscribe to the API. We are going into details a few lines below.
C. General information, with the description and other features related to social media and feedback from users.
D. API Console, one of the most important tools of the platform, that allows you to interact with the API with no code.
E. Documentation, probably the other most important area of the platform, where the documentation of each API is available.
F. SDKs, to access the 10 SDKs that we automatically generate for each API.
G. Applications area, where you will manage your subscriptions, tokens and other features.
H. Analytics area, where you will monitor the use of your subscriptions, to learn how they are being used by your end users. A key area for optimal cost management.
Here you will access all the available information about the API. The API documentation will be helpful to learn how to use the API.
Subscription tiers should be your next stop. Just select the subscription tier that best suits you (many APIs include a free small tier), and subscribe to it.
All subscriptions require to select an Application.
Upon successful subscription, you can choose to stay in the API screen, or go to the subscriptions list in the Application screen.
TIPS AND INFORMATION
In Nubentos API Store, an Application is an entity you must create (or use the default one) to help you manage your subscriptions properly.
Each Application may have as many subscriptions as you wish, and will generate the tokens you need to use to send requests to the corresponding APIs.
Each Application manages its own tokens. You can set the tokens expiration time, after which you should send a renewal request.
From each Application detail, you can see their active subscriptions and unsubscribe in case you need to move it to another Application or you have decided not to use it anymore.
You may be wondering why you should need more than one Application? Using different Applications can be useful in certain cases. Let’s see a couple of them.
DIFFERENT CLIENTS SEGMENTS
For example, say you have different clients in size. You have one big client and one small client. It makes sense that the big client will have more users and can afford more costs. And the small one will have less users and less budget.
The API you want to integrate in your software, offers two subscription tiers: a small one, up to 1.000 requests per month and a fee of 0,02€ per request, and a big one, up to 10.000 request per month, and a fee of 0,04€ per request.
To optimize your development costs, you would like to use the small plan for your small client, and the big plan for your big client.
You can do this by creating two Applications.
Then you can subscribe to the big plan in one Application, and to the small plan in the other one.
The Application that holds your subscription to the big plan, will manage the tokens to be used in your code for your big client (in a specific version of your product, for example).
And the other Application holding your subscription to the small plan, will manage the tokens that you will use in your code for your small client (in a separate version of your product, or having the tokens parametrized).
This way your costs will be calculated separately, although they will come from the same software product. For each subscription, their specific costs will apply.
This way you can optimize your costs and adjust them to the different clients you may have for your software.
DIFFERENT SOFTWARE PRODUCTS
Another good reason to use different Applications is to help you monitor your users, how they use your APIs, and have a more granular vision to take better management decisions based on their behavior and about your development costs.
For example, say you have two different software products, and you want to integrate the same API in both of them.
You can create two Applications in Nubentos API Store, and subscribe to the same API in each Application (even to the same subscription plan if it suits both business cases).
You will need to use different tokens in each software product.
By doing this, when you use your analytics dashboard within Nubentos API Store, you will be shown the analytics for each Application separately, instead of all together.
The information you will see will match the real usage of each software, made by the end users of each product.
You will be able to better understand how each product’s end users are using your API, and manage your development costs more properly.
TEST THE API AS AN API CONSUMER
The first time you subscribe to an API, you need to generate the tokens to be used in your requests. This is true just in case this is your first subscription in the selected Application, because tokens are generated and managed within Applications and apply to all its subscriptions.
If this is your case, you must go to the Application screen, and generate the keys in the tab corresponding to the environment you want to send your requests to.
When you are using your API for the first times, you will want to test it against the Sandbox environment. Otherwise it may generate costs for you, provided that you have subscribed to a paid tier.
Therefore, our suggestion is to generate only the token for Sandbox environment.
Notice that this action has also generated the Consumer Key and the Consumer secret.
You can also establish the expiration time for the token in this environment, expressed in seconds (60 minutes by default, negative value if you want your token to never expire).
Once you have your tokens generated from the Application that holds your subscription, you can use them in the Integrated Test Console.
Pay attention to selecting the Sandbox environment before sending any test. The generated token for that environment will automatically appear in the “Set Request Header” field.
Just click on its tab in the API detail, and you will be able to test each resource (method). To proceed, click the “Try it out!” button to edit the input parameters. After providing their values you can check the response returned after clicking the “Execute” button.
Almost instantly you will receive the response from the remote API. A response HTTP code of 200 means “successful execution”, and the data received in the response is displayed.
TIPS AND INFORMATION
You can test your API as much as you want, but pay attention to always use the Sandbox token.
Notice that no test will generate you costs, regardless of the subscription tier you are subscribed to as long as you use the Sandbox environment.
This means that, although you subscribed to a paid tier, it won’t generate you costs until you use the Production token (and environment).
Please notice that if your account is subscribed to our Free SaaS plan, you will have 50 free uses, including sandbox and production. Once you reach that quota, your account will be blocked until you upgrade your plan.
INTEGRATE THE API IN YOUR SOFTWARE
When you finish testing your API and have a clear picture of how you are going to use it in your software, click on the SDK tab in the API detail, and download the SDK corresponding to your development technology.
TIPS AND INFORMATION
We have published a specific post to help you integrate your API in your software using the SDK you have downloaded. We encourage you to read it here.
MONITOR YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS TO CONTROL COSTS
Once your software with the API integrated is deployed to your end users, and they start using it, each use will generate costs for you (provided that you subscribed to a paid tier).
In case you subscribed to a subscription tier with a flat quota, then the platform will keep track of every use to apply the right fee at the end of each month.
You can monitor the use made of your API subscriptions by your end users, through the Analytics you have at your disposal in Nubentos API Store.
TIPS AND INFORMATION
This will be helpful to keep control of possible misuses that could turn into over costs for you, or to monitor if your estimated use level when you chose the subscription tier you subscribed to was correct.
In case you see that there are too many throttled requests, which means that the real usage of your software implies more requests than expected, you can consider to upgrade to a higher plan in order to enlarge your consumption threshold, improve your users experience (preventing from rejected requests) or avoid fees per extra requests.
Of course the opposite situation can also be checked, and you can find it appropriate to change to a smaller plan if you see that your estimations were too high.
Please notice that the consumption tiers that you will see in the APIs, correspond to the quota assigned to your current SaaS plan in your user account. Therefore, it may be necessary to upgrade to a higher SaaS plan in your user account, in order to unblock higher consumption tiers in your APIs.
CONCLUSIONS ON THE PROCESS FOR THE API CONSUMER
In this post, we have walked through the main steps you need to follow to successfully integrate in your software the Digital Health solution provided through an API published in Nubentos API Store.
We have also shown how you can use different Applications for certain situations, to help you take better management decisions and keep your development costs under control.
We have seen how easy it is to test your API before writing any code.
Finally, we have seen that each API published in Nubentos has 10 different SDK available for you. Just pick the one that matches your development technology, and you will have all the technical resources you need to implement the requests to and manage the responses from your new API.
The bottom line is, that using Nubentos API Store to integrate Digital Health solutions gives you more than the solution itself. It gives you the necessary tools to do it under optimal costs, in a standardized way, and to help you reduce your time to market, your maintenance costs and take the best management decisions about how your end users use the solution through your integrations.
Interested in integrating some of our Digital Health APIs in your software? A little confused about where to start, how to do it or what steps to follow? This post is for you (and your IT team). We have prepared this quick guide for the API Consumer in Nubentos thinking of you, walking in your shoes and putting together everything we would like to find if we were you.
Let’s start.
FIND YOUR API
You can access our catalog of Digital Health innovations for free by browsing our API Store, available on our website.
You can choose between two views: the APIs view and the Packs view.
The APIs view is the traditional portfolio of APIs, where you can browse API by API our entire catalog.
The Packs view allows you to browse our marketplace from a business-oriented approach, Pack by Pack. Each Pack contains a set of APIs, grouped by a business case criteria.
In the APIs view, you can use any of the filtering tools shown in our fixed bar, above the APIs.
-
-
- A. CATEGORY. Here you can select from the large number of tags that are associated with each API or Pack.
- B. STATUS. Filters APIs in “PUBLISHED” status, “COMING SOON” status, or both.
- C. PRICING MODEL. Here you can filter the APIs that are FREE (all their consumption plans are free), those that are FREEMIUM (with some free consumption and some paid), and those that are COMMERCIAL (without free consumption).
- D. CERTIFICATION. This filter allows you to quickly identify the APIs that have the most important certifications, such as CE Mark or FDA Approval.
- E. SEARCH. In this field you can type text, and the APIs that contain it in their name or description will be filtered immediately.
-
For every API there is a details page full of useful information, to help you decide if that API is of your interest. You can access it by clicking on the “View API” button in any API card.
A. API Name, logo and pricing model.
B. Tags associated with the API, by which you can filter the portfolio.
C. Description of the API.
D. Information about its version, provider, status, available environments, certifications, etc.
E. Available documentation published by the provider along with the API.
F. Costs estimating tool.
Below the API details, you will find an “Use API” button, that will take you to the API in our developer platform, where you will be able to use it and integrate it in your software.
When you click on that button, you will be prompted to sign in in case you haven’t done so yet. Only registered users with an active SaaS membership are allowed to access the Nubentos developer platform.
TIPS AND INFORMATION
When you click on an API labeled as “SOON”, you won’t find a “Use API” button. Instead, you will see a subscription form. You can use it to be informed by email as soon as that API becomes fully available, and this way you will help us bring more providers of such solution.
The “SOON” state (“COMING SOON”) means that the API is already being published, in case it’s associated with a named API and provider, and it will be fully available as a FREE, FREEMIUM or PAID API in the near future.
In case you don’t see a specific API name and its provider, that means that several providers of this kind of solution have been identified by our commercial team, and we are in conversations with them.
COSTS ESTIMATING TOOL
One of the most helpful features available for our users and visitors, is the Costs Estimating Tool that you will find in every details page of our APIs.
This tool is aimed at helping you estimate the costs that you will face in case you choose that specific API for your projects.
Let’s check it out in detail.
A. Nubentos SaaS Plans. Columns of this table show our SaaS Plans.
B. API Consumption Plans. Rows of this table show the different Consumption Plans available for that API.
C. Availability. Cells of this table show what Consumption Plans are available under which SaaS Plans.
D. Estimated Volume. Here you can type the estimated number of monthly API calls (API uses) for this API applied to your business case and users.
E. “Calculate” button. By clicking on it, the cells of the table will show the costs for each pair of SaaS plan and Consumption plan.
The best pair, that is, the cheapest, will be highlighted.
You can check the details of the calculated costs by placing your mouse pointer on any cell. A tooltip will show the SaaS costs and the Consumption costs.
The SaaS cost is a flat cost, unitary for your user account, and therefore is applied only once, regardless of the number of APIs you are using.
The Consumption cost is a variable cost, per each API. Here you can see the result of applying the fee of the Consumption plan (the row) to the number of API calls you have entered as your estimated monthly usage volume.
SIGN UP IN NUBENTOS
While browsing our catalog is free and public, and you can visit any details page of any API or Pack, only registered users with an active SaaS membership in Nubentos can access our developer platform to use the APIs.
The Sign-up process is a two-stages process.
First, you create your user account.
Second, and most important, you subscribe your user account to one of our available SaaS plans.
It’s very important to complete the whole process, since otherwise you won’t have access to our developer platform, and won’t be able to test the APIs and integrate them in your projects.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE API
You have accessed the API in our developer platform through the “Use API” button in its details page. Here is where everything happens! Let’s check this platform out and what you can do with each API.
A. API information, such as status, version, etc.
B. Subscription area, where you can choose the consumption plan of your interest and subscribe to the API. We are going into details a few lines below.
C. General information, with the description and other features related to social media and feedback from users.
D. API Console, one of the most important tools of the platform, that allows you to interact with the API with no code.
E. Documentation, probably the other most important area of the platform, where the documentation of each API is available.
F. SDKs, to access the 10 SDKs that we automatically generate for each API.
G. Applications area, where you will manage your subscriptions, tokens and other features.
H. Analytics area, where you will monitor the use of your subscriptions, to learn how they are being used by your end users. A key area for optimal cost management.
Here you will access all the available information about the API. The API documentation will be helpful to learn how to use the API.
Subscription tiers should be your next stop. Just select the subscription tier that best suits you (many APIs include a free small tier), and subscribe to it.
All subscriptions require to select an Application.
Upon successful subscription, you can choose to stay in the API screen, or go to the subscriptions list in the Application screen.
TIPS AND INFORMATION
In Nubentos API Store, an Application is an entity you must create (or use the default one) to help you manage your subscriptions properly.
Each Application may have as many subscriptions as you wish, and will generate the tokens you need to use to send requests to the corresponding APIs.
Each Application manages its own tokens. You can set the tokens expiration time, after which you should send a renewal request.
From each Application detail, you can see their active subscriptions and unsubscribe in case you need to move it to another Application or you have decided not to use it anymore.
You may be wondering why you should need more than one Application? Using different Applications can be useful in certain cases. Let’s see a couple of them.
DIFFERENT CLIENTS SEGMENTS
For example, say you have different clients in size. You have one big client and one small client. It makes sense that the big client will have more users and can afford more costs. And the small one will have less users and less budget.
The API you want to integrate in your software, offers two subscription tiers: a small one, up to 1.000 requests per month and a fee of 0,02€ per request, and a big one, up to 10.000 request per month, and a fee of 0,04€ per request.
To optimize your development costs, you would like to use the small plan for your small client, and the big plan for your big client.
You can do this by creating two Applications.
Then you can subscribe to the big plan in one Application, and to the small plan in the other one.
The Application that holds your subscription to the big plan, will manage the tokens to be used in your code for your big client (in a specific version of your product, for example).
And the other Application holding your subscription to the small plan, will manage the tokens that you will use in your code for your small client (in a separate version of your product, or having the tokens parametrized).
This way your costs will be calculated separately, although they will come from the same software product. For each subscription, their specific costs will apply.
This way you can optimize your costs and adjust them to the different clients you may have for your software.
DIFFERENT SOFTWARE PRODUCTS
Another good reason to use different Applications is to help you monitor your users, how they use your APIs, and have a more granular vision to take better management decisions based on their behavior and about your development costs.
For example, say you have two different software products, and you want to integrate the same API in both of them.
You can create two Applications in Nubentos API Store, and subscribe to the same API in each Application (even to the same subscription plan if it suits both business cases).
You will need to use different tokens in each software product.
By doing this, when you use your analytics dashboard within Nubentos API Store, you will be shown the analytics for each Application separately, instead of all together.
The information you will see will match the real usage of each software, made by the end users of each product.
You will be able to better understand how each product’s end users are using your API, and manage your development costs more properly.
TEST THE API AS AN API CONSUMER
The first time you subscribe to an API, you need to generate the tokens to be used in your requests. This is true just in case this is your first subscription in the selected Application, because tokens are generated and managed within Applications and apply to all its subscriptions.
If this is your case, you must go to the Application screen, and generate the keys in the tab corresponding to the environment you want to send your requests to.
When you are using your API for the first times, you will want to test it against the Sandbox environment. Otherwise it may generate costs for you, provided that you have subscribed to a paid tier.
Therefore, our suggestion is to generate only the token for Sandbox environment.
Notice that this action has also generated the Consumer Key and the Consumer secret.
You can also establish the expiration time for the token in this environment, expressed in seconds (60 minutes by default, negative value if you want your token to never expire).
Once you have your tokens generated from the Application that holds your subscription, you can use them in the Integrated Test Console.
Pay attention to selecting the Sandbox environment before sending any test. The generated token for that environment will automatically appear in the “Set Request Header” field.
Just click on its tab in the API detail, and you will be able to test each resource (method). To proceed, click the “Try it out!” button to edit the input parameters. After providing their values you can check the response returned after clicking the “Execute” button.
Almost instantly you will receive the response from the remote API. A response HTTP code of 200 means “successful execution”, and the data received in the response is displayed.
TIPS AND INFORMATION
You can test your API as much as you want, but pay attention to always use the Sandbox token.
Notice that no test will generate you costs, regardless of the subscription tier you are subscribed to as long as you use the Sandbox environment.
This means that, although you subscribed to a paid tier, it won’t generate you costs until you use the Production token (and environment).
Please notice that if your account is subscribed to our Free SaaS plan, you will have 50 free uses, including sandbox and production. Once you reach that quota, your account will be blocked until you upgrade your plan.
INTEGRATE THE API IN YOUR SOFTWARE
When you finish testing your API and have a clear picture of how you are going to use it in your software, click on the SDK tab in the API detail, and download the SDK corresponding to your development technology.
TIPS AND INFORMATION
We have published a specific post to help you integrate your API in your software using the SDK you have downloaded. We encourage you to read it here.
MONITOR YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS TO CONTROL COSTS
Once your software with the API integrated is deployed to your end users, and they start using it, each use will generate costs for you (provided that you subscribed to a paid tier).
In case you subscribed to a subscription tier with a flat quota, then the platform will keep track of every use to apply the right fee at the end of each month.
You can monitor the use made of your API subscriptions by your end users, through the Analytics you have at your disposal in Nubentos API Store.
TIPS AND INFORMATION
This will be helpful to keep control of possible misuses that could turn into over costs for you, or to monitor if your estimated use level when you chose the subscription tier you subscribed to was correct.
In case you see that there are too many throttled requests, which means that the real usage of your software implies more requests than expected, you can consider to upgrade to a higher plan in order to enlarge your consumption threshold, improve your users experience (preventing from rejected requests) or avoid fees per extra requests.
Of course the opposite situation can also be checked, and you can find it appropriate to change to a smaller plan if you see that your estimations were too high.
Please notice that the consumption tiers that you will see in the APIs, correspond to the quota assigned to your current SaaS plan in your user account. Therefore, it may be necessary to upgrade to a higher SaaS plan in your user account, in order to unblock higher consumption tiers in your APIs.
CONCLUSIONS ON THE PROCESS FOR THE API CONSUMER
In this post, we have walked through the main steps you need to follow to successfully integrate in your software the Digital Health solution provided through an API published in Nubentos API Store.
We have also shown how you can use different Applications for certain situations, to help you take better management decisions and keep your development costs under control.
We have seen how easy it is to test your API before writing any code.
Finally, we have seen that each API published in Nubentos has 10 different SDK available for you. Just pick the one that matches your development technology, and you will have all the technical resources you need to implement the requests to and manage the responses from your new API.
The bottom line is, that using Nubentos API Store to integrate Digital Health solutions gives you more than the solution itself. It gives you the necessary tools to do it under optimal costs, in a standardized way, and to help you reduce your time to market, your maintenance costs and take the best management decisions about how your end users use the solution through your integrations.
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